Strategic gurus to headline CPR event in New Delhi

February 22, 2012 15:16 IST

In a rare initiative, the Centre for Policy Research will launch an event -- 'NonAlignment 2.0: A Foreign and Strategic Policy for India in the Twenty First Century' -- on February 28 in New Delhi, which will focus on India's strategic affairs.

The invitation sent by CPR president Pratap Bhanu Mehta mentions that the three speakers who know the best-kept secrets of India and who know exactly how India has defined it's national interests and how India has gone about it since 1998 after nuclear devices in Pokhran were tested.

The CPR event, to be held in Ashoka Hotel, will be graced by National Security Advisor Shiv Shankar Menon, West Bengal governor and former NSA M K Narayanan and another former NSA Brajesh Mishra.

"NonAlignment 2.0 is an attempt to identify the basic principles that should guide India's foreign and strategic policy over the next decade. The purposes of this strategy document are three-fold: to lay

out the opportunities that India enjoys in the international sphere; to identify the challenges and threats it is likely to confront; and to define the broad perspective and approach that India should adopt as it works to enhance its strategic autonomy," the invite reads.

NonAlignment 2.0 is the product of a collective deliberation, debate and report writing involving a diverse and independent group of analysts and policy makers including Sunil Khilnani, Rajiv Kumar, Pratap Bhanu Mehta, Lietenant General (retd.) Prakash Menon, Nandan Nilekani, Srinath Raghavan, Shyam Saran and , Siddharth Vardarajan. The group was convened in November 2010 and met at regular intervals for over a year. Also present at some of the meetings were the Shiv Shankar Menon, and the Deputy National Security Advisors, Alok Prasad and Latha Reddy.